Reliable datagram via independent source destination resources

ABSTRACT

A method includes producing units of work with at least one source application instance (AI) at a source device and consuming units of work with at least one destination AI at a destination device. A first reliable datagram service is established, with a first source and destination resource (SDR), between the source device and the destination device. A second reliable datagram service is established, with a second SDR independent of the first SDR, between the source device and the destination device. A first unit of work stream is transmitted over a communication services/fabric with the first reliable datagram service, which guarantees strong ordering of the first unit of work stream received at the destination device. A second unit of work stream is transmitted over the communication services/fabric with the second reliable datagram service, which guarantees strong ordering of the second unit of work stream received at the destination device.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Utility Patent Application is a Continuation of U.S. applicationSer. No. 09/578,155 filed on May 23, 2000 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,318,102,which claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. ProvisionalApplications Ser. No. 60/135,664, filed May 24, 1999 and U.S. Ser. No.60/154,150, filed Sep. 15, 1999, all of which are herein incorporated byreference.

THE FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to data processing, and moreparticularly to communication between distributed application instancesvia a reliable datagram service.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In conventional data processing systems, distributed applicationinstances typically employ transport services, such as a reliableconnection service or an unreliable datagram service, to communicate. Anapplication instance is herein defined to be a producer or a consumer ofdata in the data processing system. An application instance can beimplemented in software, hardware, or firmware, or in any combination ofthese. A unit of work is herein defined to be data which is transmittedbetween a source application instance and a destination applicationinstance. Accordingly, a source application instance is the producer ofthe unit of work sent to the destination application instance. Thedestination application instance is the consumer of the unit of worksent from the source application instance.

A portion of a conventional data processing system employing a reliableconnection service to communicate between distributed applicationinstances is illustrated generally at 30 in FIG. 1. Conventional dataprocessing system 30 includes an application instance A indicated at 32,an application instance B indicated at 34, and an application instance Cindicated at 36. The reliable connection service of data processingsystem 30 creates at least one non-sharable resource connection betweeneach connected pair of communicating application instances. For example,a first non-sharable resource connection 38 and a second non-sharableresource connection 40 are created between application instance Aindicated at 32 and application instance B indicated at 34. A thirdnon-sharable resource connection is created between application instanceA indicated at 32 and application instance C indicated at 36. Eachnon-sharable resource connection includes a unique set of non-sharableresources. The reliable connection service transmits units of workbetween application instances by identifying a source connection handleand by issuing appropriate instructions to control data transmission.Reliable connection services provide reliable communication betweenapplication instances, but at the cost of scalability of the dataprocessing system. In reliable connection services, communication at anyone time is restricted to one-to-one application instance relationshipsvia corresponding non-sharable resource connections.

A portion of a conventional data processing system employing anunreliable datagram service to communicate between application instancesis illustrated generally at 50 in FIG. 2. Conventional data processingsystem 50 includes an application instance A indicated at 52, anapplication instance B indicated at 54, and an application instance Cindicated at 56, and an application instance D indicated at 58. Theunreliable datagram service employed by data processing system 50creates a shared resource datagram 60. Shared resource datagram 60 canbe employed to transmit units of work between multiple applicationinstances. Shared resource datagram 60 couples application instance Aindicated at 52 to application instance B indicated at 54, toapplication instance C indicated at 56, and to application instance Dindicated at 58. Unreliable datagram services provide for highlyscalable data processing systems, but at the cost of reliability. In anunreliable datagram service, the application instance relationships canbe one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-one, but communication betweenapplication instances is not reliable. In particular, traditionalunreliable datagrams do not provide guaranteed ordering of units of worktransmitted between application instances.

For reasons stated above and for other reasons presented in greaterdetail in the Description of the Preferred Embodiments section of thepresent specification, there is a need for an improved transport servicefor communicating between distributed application instances in dataprocessing systems. The improved transport service should providereliable communication between application instances includingguaranteed ordering of units of work transmitted between applicationinstances. In addition, the improved transport service should providefor highly scalable data processing systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One embodiment provides a method of processing data including producingunits of work with at least one source application instance (AI) at asource device and consuming units of work with at least one destinationAI at a destination device. The method includes establishing a firstreliable datagram service, with a first source and destination resource(SDR), between the source device and the destination device andestablishing a second reliable datagram service, with a second SDRindependent of the first SDR, between the source device and thedestination device. The method includes transmitting a first unit ofwork stream over a communication services/fabric with the first reliabledatagram service and guaranteeing strong ordering of the first unit ofwork stream received at the destination device with the first reliabledatagram service. The method includes transmitting a second unit of workstream over the communication services/fabric with the second reliabledatagram service, and guaranteeing strong ordering of the second unit ofwork stream received at the destination device with the second reliabledatagram service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a conventional data processing system employing areliable connection service to communicate between distributedapplication instances.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a portion of a conventional data processingsystem employing an unreliable datagram service to communicate betweenapplication instances.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a portion of a data processing system accordingto the present invention employing a reliable datagram service forproviding reliable communication between distributed applicationinstances.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a portion of a data processing system accordingto the present invention having multiple source and destinationresources (SDRs) for implementing a reliable datagram service betweenmultiple devices.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of one embodiment of a protocol header according tothe present invention containing fields employed an underlyingcommunication services/fabric to target a destination applicationinstance in a reliable datagram service according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example transmission operationbetween a source device and a destination device for the data processingsystem of FIG. 4.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another example transmission operationbetween a source device and a destination device for the data processingsystem of FIG. 4.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating another example transmission operationbetween a source device and a destination device for the data processingsystem of FIG. 4.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of a portion of a data processing system accordingto the present invention having multiple SDRs established between devicepairs.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments,reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof,and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments inwhich the invention may be practiced. It is to be understood that otherembodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changes may bemade without departing from the scope of the present invention. Thefollowing detailed description, therefore, is not to be taken in alimiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined by theappended claims.

A portion of a data processing system according to the present inventionis illustrated generally at 100 in FIG. 3. Data processing system 100includes a reliable datagram service according to the present inventionfor providing reliable communication between distributed applicationinstances (AIs). The reliable datagram service according to the presentinvention also provides for a highly scalable data processing system100.

Data processing system 100 includes a source and destination resource(SDR) 102 for implementing a reliable datagram service between a device104 and a device 106. SDR 102 comprises SDR resources 102 a at device104 and SDR resources 102 b at device 106. SDR resources 102 acommunicate with SDR resources 102 b via a communication services/fabric108. Device 104 and device 106 can each be a source or a destinationdevice depending on the direction of communication. Device 104 includesan AI 110, an AI 112, and an AI 114. Device 106 includes an AI 116, anAI 118, and an AI 120. AIs produce or consume data. AIs can beimplemented in software, hardware, or firmware, or in any combination ofthese.

A first step in implementing a reliable datagram service between sourceand destination devices, such as devices 104 and 106, is to create a SDRaccording to the present invention, such as SDR 102, upon which reliablecommunication can be implemented in a scalable data processing system. Avariety of suitable techniques can be used to create a SDR according tothe present invention. One such suitable technique employs an unreliabledatagram service between middleware AIs on the source and destinationdevices, such as middleware AI 122 on device 104 and middleware AI 124on device 106. The middleware AIs exchange sufficient data to uniquelyidentify the SDR which will be employed to exchange reliable datagrams.Middleware AIs facilitate communication between AIs either directly,such as by providing a communication application programming interface(API) and library, or indirectly, such as by providing transparent errorrecovery and other management services. Middleware AIs can beimplemented in hardware via a state machine, in firmware, or in softwarewithin a given device, such as devices 104 and 106. One embodiment of amiddleware AI (e.g., middleware AIs 122 and 124) operates local to theAIs within the same device. One embodiment of a middleware AI, such asmiddleware AI 126, executes remotely and is accessed via the underlyingcommunication services/fabric.

Once a SDR according to the present invention is established, any numberof source AIs can employ the established SDR, such as SDR 102, tocommunicate to any number of destination AIs, because the establishedSDR functions as a point of multiplexing at the source device and as apoint of demultiplixing at the destination device.

In an example operation of SDR 102, device 104 is a source device anddevice 106 is a destination device. In this example operation, AIs 110,112, and 114 of source device 104 are source AIs which produce units ofwork transmitted to the destination device 106. In this exampleoperation, AIs 116, 118, and 120 are destination AIs which consume theunits of work transmitted from corresponding source AIs 110, 112, and114. In this example operation, SDR resources 102 a at source device 104multiplex units of work produced by source AIs 110, 112, and 114 into aserial unit of work stream provided on communication services/fabric108. The serial unit of work stream is demultiplexed by SDR resources102 b at destination device 106 into units of work consumed by AIs 116,118, and 120. In this example operation, SDR resources 102 b validatethe delivery of units of work, generate positive acknowledgements (ACKs)and negative acknowledgments (NAKs), and perform resynchronizationoperations based on any detected errors.

The reliable datagram service implemented with a SDR, such as SDR 102,provides for distributed AI communication using one-to-one, one-to-many,or many-to-one AI relationships. In addition, AIs can operate within thesame device via a device backplane fabric (e.g., a form of shared memorywithin a device) or between disparate devices which are connected via anintermediate communication fabric. Therefore, the communications betweenAIs is independent of the physical locality of the AIs and isconnectionless from the perspective of the AIs.

A unit of work is data transmitted between a source AI and a destinationAI. In one embodiment, the units of work are treated as opaque objectsby the underlying communication services/fabric. In one embodiment,however, the underlying communication services/fabric performs optionalfiltering services on the units of work based on the capability of theunderlying communication services/fabric and the requirements of themiddleware AIs and AIs.

The reliable datagram service according to the present inventionincludes the following mechanisms to assure reliable transmission of theunits of work between the source AIs and the destination AIs. A strongordering mechanism in the SDR guarantees that the destination AIsreceive the units of work in the same order that the correspondingsource AIs sent the unit of work. Units of work sent by other source AIsto the same destination AI using separate SDRs may be interleaved.Strong ordering is only guaranteed on a one-to-one sourceAI-to-destination AI resource basis.

A second mechanism for assuring reliable transmission of the units ofwork between the source AIs and the destination AIs is that a given unitof work is received by the destination SDR resources exactly once. Inother words, duplicate copies of units of work which may be generatedduring an error event or a recovery operation are detected and notdelivered to the destination AI.

A third mechanism for assuring reliable transmission of the units ofwork between the source AIs and the destination AIs is anacknowledgement mechanism. The source AI and/or the communicationservices/fabric are informed of a unit of work transmission completioneither via a positive acknowledgement (ACK) which indicates a unit ofwork was successively transmitted and received or a negativeacknowledgement (NAK) which indicates an unrecoverable error wasdetected either within the unit of work or in its transmission. In oneembodiment, a source AI is notified of an error through out-of-bandcommunication, such as an alarm generated by the underlyingcommunication services/fabric when a hardware failure is detected.

In one embodiment, AIs use the same sender-based or receiver-basedcommunication and memory management/protection techniques astraditionally used by reliable connections services. In addition, AIscan implement other reliable operations and additional reliabletechniques utilizing reliable datagrams which are not normallyimplemented using reliable connections.

Logical unit of work transmission size is limited only by the size ofthe memory window exported (sender-based communication) or posted(receiver-based communication) by the destination AI. Receiver-based AIscan support one or multiple memory buffers as transmission targets. Thereceiver communication services/fabric are responsible for selecting theoptimal memory buffer to target for a given unit of work based on unitof work attributes or AI input.

Memory is protected using techniques such as Hamlyn protectionmechanisms to ensure correct access rights (e.g., no access, readaccess, write access, read/write access, memory address rangeverification, and the like) are verified before access is granted to anAI.

A portion of a data processing system according to the present inventionhaving multiple SDRs is illustrated generally at 200 in FIG. 4. Dataprocessing system 200 includes a device A indicated at 202, a device Bindicated at 204, a device C indicated at 206, and a device D indicatedat 208. A SDR 210 including SDR resources 210 a at device 202 and SDRresources 210 b at device 204 implements a reliable datagram servicebetween device 202 and device 204. A SDR 212 including SDR resources 212a at device 202 and SDR resources 212 b at device 206 implements areliable datagram service between device 202 and 206. A SDR 214including SDR resources 214 a at device 204 and SDR resources 214 b atdevice 208 implements a reliable datagram service between device 204 and208. A SDR 216 including SDR resources 216 a at device 206 and SDRresources 216 b at device 208 implements a reliable datagram servicebetween device 206 and device 208. The source and destination ends ofeach of the SDRs 210, 212, 214, and 216 communicate via a communicationservices/fabric 218. Devices 202, 204, 206, and 208 can each be a sourceor a destination device depending on the direction of communication.

Device 202 includes an AI 220 coupled to SDR resources 210 a and SDRresources 212 a; and an AI 222 coupled to SDR resources 212 a. Device204 includes an AI 224 coupled to SDR resources 210 b; and an AI 226coupled to SDR resources 210 b and SDR resources 214 a. Device 206includes an AI 228 coupled to SDR resources 212 b; and an AI 230 coupledto SDR resources 216 a. Device 208 includes an AI 232 coupled to SDRresources 214 b; and an AI 234 coupled to SDR resources 214 b and SDRresources 216 b.

Thus, for each <source, destination> device tuple, one or more SDRs areestablished (e.g., SDR 210 is established for the device 202-device 204tuple). The AIs on each device can communicate to any AI on anotherdevice to which they are coupled through an associated SDR. One or moreSDRs can be associated with a given physical fabric device allowingtraffic segregation and multiple topologies to be supported.

Example Reliable Communication Protocol

The above-described strong ordering mechanism, the mechanism providingthat a given unit of work is received by the destination SDR resourcesexactly once, and the acknowledge mechanism, which together assurereliable transmission of the units of work between the source AIs andthe destination AIs, can be implemented according to the followingexample reliable communication protocol.

The example reliable communication protocol includes serializing allunits of work which are transmitted between a source AI and acorresponding destination AI into a unit of work stream. Theserialization of the units of work into a unit of stream is accomplishedas follows. In one embodiment, each unit of work is treated as an opaqueobject which is encapsulated within a protocol header for transmission.A protocol header contains the fields employed by the underlyingcommunication services/fabric to target the destination AI.

One example embodiment of a protocol header is illustrated generally at300 in FIG. 5. Protocol header 300 includes target fields 302 which areemployed by the underlying communication services/fabric to target thedestination AI. A SDR identifier field 304 uniquely identifies the SDRemployed to send and receive the units of work. All communicationrequiring strong ordering must flow through the same SDR. Strongordering is not guaranteed across SDRs within the same device.

A SDR sequence number field 306 provides a unique logical time stamprepresenting a defined order of the units of work in the unit of workstream transmitted from the source SDR resources and is employed by thedestination SDR resources for verifying that units of work are arrivingin order and for detecting if any units of work are missing. Thesuccessive protocol headers in a given serial unit of work streamcontain monotonically increasing number values in their respective SDRsequence number fields, which are assigned per SDR.

If the SDR sequence number field 306 value matches the expected sequencenumber valve stored in the destination SDR resources, then otherprotocol header 300 fields are verified by the destination SDRresources. The destination SDR resources provide an ACK if the currentunit of work is determined to be valid from the destination device'sperspective. The destination SDR resources provide a NAK if the currentunit of work is determined to be invalid from the destination device'sperspective.

The SDR sequence number field 306 value being less than an expected nextsequence number value stored in the destination SDR resources indicatesthat the unit of work is a duplicate unit of work and the unit of workis dropped by the destination SDR resources. In one embodiment, theduplicate unit of work is silently dropped by the destination SDRresources. In one embodiment, the destination SDR resources drop theduplicate unit of work and provide an ACK indicating to the source SDRresources that the last unit of work was received to avoid the sourceSDR resources from again transmitting the duplicate unit of work in casethe previous ACK corresponding the firstly received unit of work withthe same SDR sequence number was dropped.

The SDR sequence number field 306 value being greater than the expectednext sequence number value stored in the destination SDR resourcesindicates that the current unit of work is received ahead of its definedorder, and thus, an intermediate unit of work is missing. A first optionfor responding to the indication that an intermediate unit of work ismissing is for the destination SDR resources to silently drop thecurrent unit of work and await the source SDR resources to retransmitthe missing unit of work based, for example, on a timer expiring.

A second option for responding to the indication that an intermediateunit of work is missing is for the destination SDR resources to providea NAK, which contains the expected next sequence number value in the SDRsequence number field of the protocol header of the NAK, indicating tothe source SDR resources that an intermediate of work is missing. In oneembodiment implementing the second option, the unit of work is droppedand the NAK indicates to the source SDR resources the sequence number ofthe missing intermediate unit of work. The source SDR resources respondto the NAK and retransmit all units of work having an assigned SDRsequence number value equal to or greater than the SDR sequence numbervalue corresponding to the missing intermediate unit of work.

In another embodiment implementing the second option for responding tothe indication that an intermediate unit of work is missing, thedestination SDR resources verify other protocol header fields. If allother verification checks pass, the destination SDR resourcestemporarily store the current unit of work, while the middleware AIsperform a resynchronization operation to recover the missingintermediate unit of work.

Resynchronization is herein defined to be the process employed tosynchronize the SDR associated with a given <source AI, destination AI>tuple. In other words, resynchronization aligns the SDR contents todetermine what units of work have been posted for transmission, whatunits of work have been reliably completed, and what units of work needto be retransmitted. The resynchronization process is primarilycontrolled by the SDR sequence number values associated with a given SDRto retransmit and/or clean up the non-completed units of work. Whileresynchronization is performed strictly on an implementation dependentbasis, the resynchronization process can also employ a barrier controlmessage containing SDR state and control values, such as SDR sequencenumbers and acknowledgment numbers, where the barrier control message istransmitted between the source and destination devices.

Error recovery for a given <source AI, destination AI> tuple typicallyinvolves performing a resynchronization event between the resourcesassociated with the source AI and the destination AI. The resourcesassociated with the source AI and the destination AI contain sufficientstate information to recover all operations which have not beencompleted (i.e., neither an ACK nor a NAK has been received by thesource Al to complete the unit of work transmission). The resource andthe unit of work state information can be maintained at any locationwithin the source and destination devices.

The example protocol header 300 illustrated in FIG. 5 also includessource AI and destination AI identifier fields 308. The source AI anddestination identifier fields 308 are employed to perform completionevents, identify the source Al to the destination AI for subsequentapplication-specific exchanges, and the like.

If the AIs are employing sender-based communication, example protocolheader 300 contains additional protection fields 310. Example protectionfields 310 includes Hamlyn-style protection key, memory buffer addressand offsets, and the like. Protection fields 310 are validated by thedestination SDR resources before memory access is granted.

According to the example reliable communication protocol, each unit ofwork must be acknowledged using either an ACK, a NAK, or a communicationservices/fabric error notification. Acknowledgments are used to indicatewhether a unit of work has reached the destination SDR resources andsome form of action has been performed in response thereto.

In one embodiment, the acknowledgments (e.g., ACK, NAK, andcommunication services/fabric error notification) are implemented asstand-alone unit of work exchanges which are separate and well defined.In one embodiment, the acknowledgments are encapsulated in the unit ofwork within a protocol header. In one embodiment, the acknowledgmentsare formed as a component within a protocol header which is eithertransmitted separately or piggy-backed within another unit of work beingtransmitted in the other direction.

In one embodiment, ACKs are on a per unit of work basis. In thisembodiment, a separate ACK is transmitted for each unit of work which issuccessfully received and processed by the destination SDR resources. Inanother embodiment, the ACKs are cumulative. In the cumulative ACKembodiment, for a given set of units of work, a single ACK istransmitted with the embedded SDR sequence number indicating that allunits of work in the set of units of work up to and including the unitof work assigned the current SDR sequence number have been successfullyreceived and processed by the destination SDR resources. An AI can havemultiple units of work in-flight at any given time depending upon theunderlying communication services/fabrics capabilities. The number ofunits of work that a given AI can have in-flight at a given time is notlimited by the possible scope of the reliable datagram service accordingto the present invention, but can possibly be limited by specificimplementation details of the SDRs and the underlying communicationservices/fabric capabilities.

In one embodiment, NAKs are generated on a per unit of work basis foreach unit of work which is incorrectly received at the destination SDRresources. Example reasons for a unit of work to be incorrectly receivedat the destination SDR resources include cyclic redundancy check (CRC)error, protection violation, resource shortage, unrecognized destinationAI, and the like. For each unit of work which is incorrectly received, aNAK is transmitted from the destination SDR resources and the NAKincludes appropriate information to allow the source AI or theunderlying communication services/fabric to determine the recoveryaction to perform in response to the NAK. If the NAK does not require aresynchronization event, the NAK serves as an acknowledgment for theunit of work to allow subsequent units of work flowing through the samedestination SDR resources to be processed as through no error hadoccurred.

Acknowledgments (e.g., ACK, NAK, and communication services/fabric errornotification) act as synchronization events between the source anddestination ends of a SDR coupling the two devices of a <source,destination> device tuple to ensure that all units of work transmittedfrom the source device, independent of the AIs involved, are reliablydelivered to the destination device. In one embodiment, acknowledgmentsalso act as acknowledgments at the AI level, allowing a source AI to beassured that the units of work transmitted from the source AI arereliably delivered to a corresponding destination AI. In thisembodiment, unit of work retirement is automatically processed based onACKs.

Thus, there is a distinction between units of work delivered to adestination device and units of work delivered to a destination AI onthe destination device. Delivery location and acknowledgement semanticsdetermines what responding action the source AI should perform. Forexample, if a unit of work is delivered to the destination device butnot to the destination AI, the source AI cannot assume that the unit ofwork has actually been consumed by the destination AI, and thus, thesource AI must be careful as to whether subsequent actions should beperformed.

An illustrative example is as follows, if a source AI is moving a diskblock from a first device to a first destination AI on a second deviceand then transferring ownership of the disk block to a seconddestination AI on a third device, the source AI needs to be assured thatthe disk block was actually received by the first destination AI and wasacted upon by the first destination AI before the source AI transfersownership to the second destination AI. If the disk block was notactually received by the first destination AI or was not acted upon bythe first destination AI before the source AI transfers ownership to thesecond destination AI, a subsequent failure within the first destinationAI could result in the second destination AI disk block owner readingstale data.

Example Transmission Operations

An example transmission operation between source device A indicated at202 and destination device C indicated at 206 for data processing system200 is illustrated in diagram form in FIG. 6. As indicated in FIG. 6,SDR resources 212 a at source device 202 include a queue 240 holdingtransmitted but not ACKed units of work and a queue 242 holding units ofwork not yet transmitted. At the time indicated in FIG. 6, queue 240includes the following units of work: UW1; UW2; UW3; UW4; and UW5. Theunits of work held in queue 240 have been processed and transmitted bySDR resources 212 a of source device 202. At the time indicated in FIG.6, queue 242 includes the following units of work: UW6; UW7; UW8; andUW9. SDR resources 212 a also store an expected next sequence numbervalue 244 which is equal to 6 at the time indicated in FIG. 6. SDRresources 212 a also store an ACK value 246, which is equal to 0 at thetime indicated in FIG. 6.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, destination device C indicated at 206 includesa queue 248 holding received units of work. The received units of workheld in queue 248 at the time illustrated in FIG. 6 include: UW1; UW2;and UW3. As indicated respectively at 252 and 254, the units of work UW4and UW5, which have been transmitted from SDR resources 212 a, are onthe communication services/fabric 218 at the time indicated in FIG. 6.At the time indicated in FIG. 6, SDR resources 212 b include an expectednext sequence number value 258 which is equal to 4 and an ACK value 260which is equal to 3. SDR resources 212 b have transmitted a stand aloneACK, indicated at 262, for the received unit of work UW1 and acumulative ACK, indicated at 264, for the received units of work UW2 andUW3. Again, the decision to transmit ACKs as stand alone ACKs orcumulative ACKs is implementation dependent. In one embodiment, apiggy-back ACK on a unit of work flowing from destination device 206 tosource device 202 can be employed to carry the ACK back to source device202. As units of work are transmitted, source device 202 and destinationdevice 206 track what units of work have been acknowledged via ACK value246 for device 202 and ACK value 260 for device 206. As units of workare transmitted, devices 202 and 206 via SDRs 212 a and 212 b also trackthe expected next sequence numbers via expected next sequence numbervalue 244 for device 202 and expected next sequence number value 258 fordevice 206 to ensure reliability is maintained.

Another example transmission operation between source device A indicatedat 202 and destination device C indicated at to 206 for data processingsystem 200 is illustrated in diagram form in FIG. 7. In the transmissionoperation of FIG. 7, the state of SDR resources 212 a of device 202 aresubstantially similar to the state of SDR resources 212 a in thetransmission operation of FIG. 6. Thus at the time indicated in FIG. 7,queue 240 of device 202 includes: UW1; UW2; UW3; UW4; and UW5. Queue 242includes UW6; UW7; UW8; and UW9. The expected next sequence number value244 is equal to 6 and the ACK value 246 is equal to 0. In addition atthe time indicated in FIG. 7, device 206 has received UW1, UW2, and UW3into queue 248. Also similar to the transmission operation illustratedin FIG. 6, SDR resources 212 b include the expected next sequence numbervalue 258 equal to 4 and the ACK value 260 equal to 3. Additionally, UW4and UW5 are on the communication services/fabric 218 as indicated at 252and 254 respectively.

However, in the transmission operation of FIG. 7, SDR resources 212 b ofdevice 206 have issued a cumulative ACK for UW1 and UW2, as indicated at266. In addition, SDR resources 212 b of device 206 have issued a NAKfor UW3, as indicated at 268. In one embodiment, the NAK for UW3indicated at 268 also contains an error code to indicate the type oferror detected to facilitate the resynchronization process. For example,if a CRC error is detected, UW3 can be transparently retransmittedwithout involving the source AI. If, however, the detected error is thatthe destination AI is not operational, the source AI needs to beinformed that UW3 and any other units of work which target thedestination AI have failed. Once the source AI has been informed thatUW3 and any other units of work which target the destination AI havefailed, the source AI determines the necessary recovery technique to beused. For such a non-operational destination AI error, devices 202 and206 increment the ACK value indicated respectively at 246 and 260 andthe expected next sequence number value respectively indicated at 244and 258, because a resynchronization operation is not required andsubsequent units of work in-flight or to be transmitted can be processedas though the error did not occur assuming that the units of work targetdifferent destination AIs.

Another example transmission operation between source device A indicatedat 202 and destination device C indicated at 206 for data processingsystem 200 is illustrated in diagram form in FIG. 8. The exampletransmission operation of FIG. 8 illustrates that the reliable datagramservice according to the present invention guarantees strong ordering ofthe received units of work at destination device 206 when the units ofwork flow through the same SDR (e.g., SDR 212).

In the transmission operation of FIG. 8, the state of SDR resources 212a of device 202 are substantially similar to the state of SDR resources212 a in the transmission operations of FIGS. 6 and 7. Thus, at the timeindicated in FIG. 8, queue 240 of device 202 includes: UW1; UW2; UW3;UW4; and UW5. Queue 242 includes UW6; UW7; UW8; and UW9. The expectednext sequence number value 244 is equal to 6 and the ACK value 246 isequal to 0.

However, in the example transmission operation of FIG. 8, the expectednext sequence number value 258 of SDR resources 212 b of destinationdevice 206 is equal to 3 indicating that SDR resources 212 b areexpecting UW3 as the next unit of work in the serial unit of work streamfrom SDR resources 212 a of source device 202. However, queue 248 ofdevice 206 has received UW1, UW2, and UW4. In addition, as indicated at270, UW3 is still on the communication services/fabric 218 behind thealready received UW4 and just ahead of UW5, indicated at 254, in theserial unit of work stream from SDR resources 212 a of source device202. Although the transmission operation of FIG. 8 has UW3 out of itsdefined order in the unit of work stream by one unit of work position tomore clearly illustrate a strong ordering violation, typically a strongordering violation occurs when a unit of work is completely missing fromthe unit of work stream. SDR resources 212 b have issued a cumulativeACK for UW1 and UW2 as indicated at 266. SDR resources 212 b have alsoissued a NAK for UW3, as indicated at 272, which indicates a sequencenumber violation (i.e., a strong ordering protocol violation). In thisexample, the SDR sequence number of the protocol header of UW4 is equalto 4 which is larger than the expected next sequence number value 258,which is equal to 3. This strong ordering protocol violation in thisexample transmission operation indicates that UW3 is missing. Thus, SDRs212 a and 212 b are resynchronized as the result of the NAK of UW3indicated at 272.

Error Detection and Processing

Error detection and processing with the reliable datagram serviceaccording to the present invention is a function of the underlyingcommunication services/fabric and the type of communication (e.g.,sender-based or receiver-based communication) being employed. Theunderlying communication services/fabric and the type of communicationbeing employed each provide error detection services which are generallyindependent of whether a given data processing system employs a reliabledatagram service to communicate. Therefore, the following description isrestricted to a description of the detection and processing of the typeof errors which directly impact the reliable datagram service operationaccording to the present invention.

A first type of error which directly impacts the reliable datagramservice operation is a protocol violation. A first type of protocolviolation is a protection related violation. Examples of protectionviolations include: the unit of work protocol header containing invalidprotection keys; invalid access right request (e.g., the request is towrite to memory window but the destination AI has designated the memorywindow as read-only); memory address and bounds check violation; and thelike. The protection errors are detected and a NAK is generatedindicating the protection error so that the source AI can takeappropriate corrective actions. The NAK in response to the protectionerror acts as a SDR acknowledgment and does not require aresynchronization event to be initialized.

A second type of protocol violation error is a sequence number error. Asequence number error occurs when the SDR sequence number field of theprotocol header is either smaller or larger than the expected sequencenumber of the destination SDR resources. The SDR sequence number fieldvalue being less than the expected next sequence number value stored inthe destination SDR resources indicates that the unit of work is aduplicate unit of work. The SDR sequence number field value beinggreater than the expected SDR sequence number value stored in thedestination SDR resources indicates that the current unit of work isreceived ahead of its defined order, and thus, an intermediate unit ofwork corresponding to the expected next sequence number value ismissing.

In one implementation, the sequence number check is actually a validsequence number window check. In this implementation, sequence numbersare implemented using a fixed range (e.g., a 32-bit range yields 4billion values). Within this range, a valid window is used to determinewhether a unit of work is valid or not valid. This is a sliding windowto account for the eventual sequence number roll-over. In oneembodiment, sequence number check is implemented as representing half ofthe entire range (e.g., 2 billion if using a 32-bit sequence number). Ifthe unit of work is within this range and less than what is expected,then it is a duplicate. If it is greater than the value, then either itis outside the window or it indicates that an intermediate unit of workwas lost within the fabric. This will result in the unit of work beingdropped, silently accepted but not completed, or a NAK can be generatedindicating unit of work was dropped. Thus, in this implementation, thesequence number validation is a window validation check and the windowis a sliding window.

The SDRs are resynchronized as a result of a sequence number error. Inone embodiment, if the unit of work is determined to be a duplicate, theunit of work is silently dropped by the destination SDR resources. Inone embodiment, the destination SDR resources drop the duplicate unit ofwork and provide an ACK indicating to the source SDR resources that thelast unit of work was received to avoid the source SDR resources fromagain transmitting the duplicate unit of work in case the previous ACKcorresponding the firstly received unit of work with the same SDRsequence number was dropped.

If the current unit of work is received ahead of its defined orderindicating that an intermediate unit of work is missing as a result ofthe SDR sequence number field value being greater than the expected SDRsequence number, the destination SDR resources can take one of severalactions. In one embodiment, the destination SDR resources silently dropthe unit of work and await the source SDR resources to retransmit themissing unit of work based, for example, on a timer expiring. In oneembodiment, the destination SDR resources generate a NAK in response tothe indication that the unit of work is received ahead of its definedorder and optionally drop the unit of work or temporarily store the unitof work into a received but unacknowledged queue. The NAK generated bythe destination SDR resources informs the source SDR resources of thesequence number error and the expected next sequence number value. Inone embodiment, the source SDR resources selectively retransmitunacknowledged units of work in response to the NAK indicating that aunit of work was received ahead of its defined order. In one embodiment,the source SDR resources retransmit all unacknowledged units of work inresponse to the NAK indicating that a unit of work was received ahead ofits defined order.

Another type of error that directly impacts the reliable datagramservice operation is the receipt of a corrupt unit of work. In this typeof error, the unit of work or the attached protocol header is corrupted,such as by a CRC violation. In some situations, the destination deviceis not capable of trusting any portion of the unit of work when thereceipt of a corrupt unit of work error occurs. In these situations, thedestination device drops the unit of work and generates a NAK indicatingthe unit of work was corrupted. The next expected sequence number isincluded in the NAK so that the source device can determine which unitsof work are possibly lost and retransmit the unacknowledged units ofwork. The SDRs are resynchronized as a result of the receipt of acorrupt unit of work error.

Another type of error that directly impacts the reliable datagramservice operation is a source AI or a destination AI abort error. Nomatter where the source AI or destination AI abort error occurs, theunits of work which are in-flight either need to be flushed or completedso that all resources can be recovered. In one embodiment, if the sourceAI is aborted, the source device invalidates the unacknowledged units ofwork, employs a small control structure to account for all in-flightunits of work so that the units of work can be completed even though theunits of work are no longer valid, and shuts down communications. Thesource AI and destination AI abort error does not require aresynchronization event, and the flush operation is treated as a seriesof acknowledgements to insure all units of work on both sides of the<source, destination> device tuple have been acknowledged and allresources have been recovered.

Another type of error that directly impacts the reliable datagramservice operation is the invalid destination AI error. The invaliddestination AI error occurs when a source AI sends a unit of work to adestination AI which never was valid or is no longer valid. Thedestination device generates a NAK indicating the invalid DAI error foreach unit of work targeting the invalid destination AI. The sourcedevice completes the units of work as normal and no resynchronizationevent is required with the invalid destination AI error.

Quality of Service

In one embodiment, quality of service (QoS) is implemented with thereliable datagram service according to the present invention bysegregating the source AI traffic across a set of replicated SDRs. QoSrelates to the scheduling of resources and AIs via service policies. QoSalso relates to the employment of the service policies to effect thethroughput and response times of a given AI unit of work stream.

Each SDR coupled between a <source, destination> tuple can be scheduledindependently by the source device, the destination device, and theunderlying communication services/fabric. This type of independentscheduling allows an application independent QoS policy to beimplemented by middleware AIs. In one embodiment, each SDR is assigned aunique QoS. In one embodiment, SDRs are grouped into QoS levels whereeach QoS level is assigned a unique QoS.

Replicating SDRs creates the following generalized application benefits.First, AI communication resource contention is reduced because thecommunication resource contention can be spread across the multipleSDRs. Secondly, the number of AIs impacted by a given AI's behavior isreduced. As an illustrative example, strong ordering is preserved, inpart, because a given unit of work transmission must be completed beforesubsequent unit of work transmissions can be acknowledged and completed.Therefore, if two source AIs are sharing the same SDR, the order thatthe source AIs issue requests is maintained by the SDR.

A third benefit to replicating SDRs is that when an error occurs, onlythe AIs employing the impacted SDR(s) are effected. Thus, all other AIscan continue to operate depending upon the error type. Transient errors,such as a CRC error, are recoverable. Hard errors, such as an erroroccurring because a physical link between AIs has failed, arerecoverable if an alternative path physical link exists between the AIsand sufficient state information is available to successfully performthe replacement of the failed physical link with the alternative pathphysical link.

A portion of a data processing system having multiple SDRs establishedbetween device pairs according to the present invention is illustratedgenerally at 400 in FIG. 9. Data processing system 400 includes areliable datagram service according to the present invention which hasimproved application performance and scalability because middleware AIsin data processing system 400 establish multiple SDRs between a device Aindicated at 402 and a device B indicated at 404. An example middlewareAI for device 402 is indicated at 406. An example middleware AI fordevice 404 is indicated at 408.

A SDR 410 including SDR resources 410 a at device 402 and SDR resources410 b at device 404 implements a reliable datagram service betweendevice 402 and device 404. A SDR 412 including SDR resources 412 a atdevice 402 and SDR resources 412 b at device 404 implements a reliabledatagram service between device 402 and device 404. A SDR 414 includingSDR resources 414 a at device 402 and SDR resources 414 b at device 404implements a reliable datagram service between device 402 and device404. A SDR 416 including SDR resources 416 a at device 402 and SDRresources 416 b at device 404 implements a reliable datagram servicebetween device 402 and device 404. The source and destination ends ofeach of the SDRs 410, 412, 414, and 416 communicate via a communicationservices/fabric 418. Device 402 and device 404 can each be a source or adestination device depending on the direction of communication.

Thus, device A indicated at 402 and device B indicated at 404communicate together via reliable datagram service provided by fourestablished SDRs 410, 412, 414 and 416. The example configurationillustrated in FIG. 9 is for illustrative purposes only and similarconfigurations can be established between an arbitrary number ofdevices. As illustrated in FIG. 9, a set of AIs are bound to each SDRrestricting the impact any AI has on another AI to generally only occurif the AIs share the same SDR.

In the example embodiment illustrated in FIG. 9, device 402 includes anAI 420 coupled to SDR resources 410 a; and AI 422 coupled to SDRresources 412 a and SDR resources 414 a; AIs 424, 426, 428, and 430 eachcoupled to SDR resources 414 a; and AIs 432, 434, 436, and 438 eachcoupled to SDR resources 416 a. Device 404 includes an AI 440 coupled toSDR resources 410 b; an AI 442 coupled to SDR resources 412 b and SDRresources 414 b; AIs 444, 446, 448, and 450 each coupled to SDRresources 414 b; and AIs 452, 454, 456, and 458 each coupled to SDRresources 416 b.

SDR resources 410 a, 412 a, 414 a, and 416 a are serviced based on thescheduling heuristics maintained at SDR schedule heuristics 460 indevice 402. Similarly, SDR resources 410 b, 412 b, 414 b, and 416 b areserviced based on the scheduling heuristics maintained at SDR scheduleheuristics 462 in device 404. In this way, SDR schedule heuristics areused to adjust the scheduling rate to create different QoS for the AIsbound to the SDRs.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 9, AI 420 and AI 440 areexclusively assigned to SDR 410. When and if two AIs, such as AIs 420and 440, are exclusively assigned to one SDR is determined by: amiddleware AI local to a device, such as middleware AI 406 of device 402and middleware AI 408 of device 404; a middleware AI executing remotelyand acting as a central manager, such as middleware AI 409, which isaccessed via the underlining communication services/fabric 418; and/oran application policy heuristics, such as stored at SDR scheduleheuristics 460 of device 402 and SDR schedule heuristics 462 of device404. Normally, such a decision is based on the application or deviceservice level objectives.

A given AI, such as AI 422 and AI 442, can be bound to multiple SDRs ifthe given AI establishes multiple reliable datagram endpoints tocommunicate through. In such a case, each endpoint is serviced based onSDR scheduling heuristics, such as stored at SDR schedule heuristics 460in device 402 and at SDR schedule heuristics 462 in device 404.

Establishing multiple SDRs between any two devices in data processingsystem 400 over which multiple AIs may operate provides the followingbenefits. Since each SDR is generally mutually independent from otherSDRs, the behavior of the AIs bound to one SDR does not generally impactthe behavior of AIs bound to another SDR. For example, an AI whichprocesses large units of work can be bound to a different SDR so that itdoes not impact the performance of an AI which processes small units ofwork.

Another benefit of establishing multiple SDRs between two devices indata processing system 400 is that errors which occur on one SDRgenerally do not impact the behavior of AIs bound to another SDR. Inaddition, error recovery may be shorter or simplified depending upon thenumber of SDRs between any two devices and the type of error detected(e.g., transient, protcol, communication services failure, and thelike).

Another benefit of establishing multiple SDRs between two devices indata processing system 400 is that a middleware AI, such as middlewareAI 406 of device 402, may modify the SDR scheduling heuristics, such asSDR schedule heuristics 460 of device 402, to transparently adjust theservice rate a given AI receives relative to other AIs. For example, anAI which is primarily processing high priority units of work can bebound to a SDR which is scheduled ahead of SDRs which are processinglower priority units of work. This modification of the SDR schedulingheuristics permits the middleware AI to create QoS policies based on theservice level objectives associated with a given AI.

Another benefit of establishing multiple SDRs between two devices indata processing system 400 is that within a given priority band,multiple AIs may be segregated across multiple SDRs, with the SDRswithin the priority band being serviced using simple schedulingpolicies, such as round-robin or weighted round-robin. The objective ofthe priority band being serviced using the simple scheduling policies isto reduce the potential contention on a given SDR to further limit thenumber of AIs impacted by a given AI's behavior when the SDR is sharedamong multiple AIs. The priority band being serviced using these simplescheduling policies improves AI scalability and overall performance ofthe applications. However, any type of arbitrary scheduling policies canbe created for QoS.

In the reliable datagram service according to the present invention,striping refers to the technique of transmitting units of work overmultiple SDRs from one source AI to one destination AI. If strongordering is required when transmitting units of work from a source AI toa destination AI, the source AI needs to transmit the units of work onone SDR. But if weak ordering is possible when transmitting units ofwork from a source AI to a destination AI, the source AI can transmitthe units of work on multiple SDRs (i.e., the source AI can employstriping) with some priority scheme, but with the potential that strongordering is not maintained. For example, most multi-media applicationscan be transmitted with striping so that resolution at the receiving endimproves over time, but without the pixels arriving in a stronglyordered manner.

As to establishing multiple SDRs for a given device pair, the reliabledatagram service according to the present invention provides no limit onthe number of SDRs which can be established between the given devicepair. There are, however, practical design considerations to limit thenumber of SDRs established between a given device pair. For example,each added SDR includes corresponding added physical resources.Moreover, additional resources are required to schedule the unit of worktraffic between the given device pair across multiple SDRs and thescheduling becomes more complex as the number of SDRs are increased. Inaddition, the number of priority levels assigned to the multiple SDRs ispreferably kept at a practical design number. Thus, the number of theSDRs to establish between a given device pair and the priority levels tobe assigned to the multiple SDRs is limited only by implementationdesign considerations.

Advantages of Reliable Datagram Service

As discussed in the Background of the Invention section of the presentspecification, AIs employing a reliable connection service must createone dedicated resource set per destination AI. By contrast, AIsemploying the reliable datagram service according to the presentinvention can re-use the same resource set per multiple destination AIs.Thus, the reliable datagram service according to the present inventionreduces the number of resource sets to create and manage whichaccordingly reduces AI implementation cost and design complexity. Inthis way, the reliable datagram service according to the presentinvention provides for highly scalable data processing systems.

Even though the reliable datagram service according to the presentinvention provides for highly scalable data processing systems, thereliable datagram service provides reliable communication between AIsincluding guaranteed ordering of units of work transmitted between AIs.The reliable datagram service according to the present inventionprovides the reliability of the reliable connection service described inthe Background of the Invention section of the present specification byguaranteeing that the unit of work transmission is reliable so that AIsemploying the reliable datagram service can rely on the underlyingcommunication services/fabric to correctly deliver the units of work oron error notification in the event of an unrecoverable error. In thisway, the reliable datagram service according to the present inventionpermits an AI to effectively off-load unit of work delivery to thereliable datagram service which reduces AI development costs.

Moreover, in one embodiment of a data processing system according to thepresent invention, unreliable datagram service is simultaneouslysupported on a communication services/fabric which supports reliabledatagram service. In one embodiment, unreliable datagram service issimultaneously supported along with reliable datagram service by tagginga unit of work as unreliable and avoiding acknowledgment/errorprocessing actions. In one embodiment, an unreliable datagram service issimultaneously supported along with a reliable datagram service bytreating all data as reliable, and as a result, never entering anapplication unit of work recovery algorithm.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described hereinfor purposes of description of the preferred embodiment, it will beappreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that a wide variety ofalternate and/or equivalent implementations calculated to achieve thesame purposes may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown anddescribed without departing from the scope of the present invention.Those with skill in the chemical, mechanical, electromechanical,electrical, and computer arts will readily appreciate that the presentinvention may be implemented in a very wide variety of embodiments. Thisapplication is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of thepreferred embodiments discussed herein. Therefore, it is manifestlyintended that this invention be limited only by the claims and theequivalents thereof.

1. A data processing system comprising: a source device having at leastone source application instance (AI) configured to produce units ofwork; a destination device having at least one destination AI configuredto consume units of work; communication services/fabric providingcommunication between the source device and the destination device; afirst source and destination resource (SDR) including first source SDRresources in the source device and first destination SDR resources inthe destination device and configured to implement a first reliabledatagram service which permits at least one of one AI to one AI, one AIto many AIs, and many AIs to one AI reliable communication and isconnectionless from the perspective of the AIs between the source deviceand the destination device, transmit a first unit of work stream overthe communication services/fabric, and guarantee strong ordering of thefirst unit of work stream received at the destination device; and asecond SDR independent from the first SDR and including second sourceSDR resources in the source device and second destination SDR resourcesin the destination device and configured to implement a second reliabledatagram service which permits at least one of one AI to one AI, one AIto many AIs, and many AIs to one AI reliable communication and isconnectionless from the perspective of the AIs between the source deviceand the destination device, transmit a second unit of work stream overthe communication services/fabric, and guarantee strong ordering of thesecond unit of work stream received at the destination device.
 2. Thedata processing system of claim 1 wherein the first SDR is assigned afirst priority level for effecting throughput and response time of unitsof work transmitted by the first SDR and the second SDR is assigned asecond priority level for effecting throughput and response time ofunits of work transmitted by the second SDR
 3. The data processingsystem of claim 1 further comprising: at least a third SDR independentfrom the first and second SDRs and configured to implement at least athird reliable datagram service between the source device and thedestination device, wherein the SDRs are grouped into multiple SDRgroups, wherein each of the multiple SDR groups includes at least oneSDR and is assigned a unique priority level for effecting throughput andresponse time of units of work transmitted by the at least one SDR. 4.The data processing system of claim 3 wherein the SDRs within at leastone of the multiple SDR groups having multiple SDRs are serviced basedon simple scheduling policies.
 5. The data processing system of claim 4wherein the simple scheduling policies comprise at least one ofround-robin scheduling policies and weighted round-robin schedulingpolicies.
 6. The data processing system of claim 1 further comprising:SDR scheduling heuristics configured to adjust a first scheduling rateof the first SDR and a second scheduling rate of the second SDR.
 7. Thedata processing system of claim 6 wherein the first and secondscheduling rates respectively create different quality of service (QoS)for AIs respectively bound to the first and second SDRs totransparently, from the perspective of the AIs, adjust QoS a respectiveAI receives relative to at least one other AI.
 8. The data processingsystem of claim 1 wherein the first unit of work stream and the secondunit of work stream are produced by one source AI and consumed by onedestination AI.
 9. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein thesource device is configured to also function as a destination device andthe destination device is configured to also function as a sourcedevice.
 10. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein the first andsecond destination SDR resources are each configured to provide anegative acknowledgement (NAK) for a unit of work received ahead of itsdefined order.
 11. The data processing system of claim 10 wherein thefirst and second source SDR resources are each configured to respond tothe NAK by performing one of retransmitting all unacknowledged units ofwork or selectively retransmitting unacknowledged units of work.
 12. Thedata processing system of claim 1 wherein the first and seconddestination SDR resources are each configured to drop a unit of workreceived ahead of its defined order.
 13. The data processing system ofclaim 1 wherein the first and second destination SDR resources are eachconfigured to provide at least one of a positive acknowledgement (ACK)for each unit of work which is successfully received and processed bythe destination SDR resources and a cumulative positive ACK for a set ofunits of work that indicate that all units of work in the set of unitsof work up to and including a current unit of work have beensuccessfully received and processed by the destination SDR resources.14. The data processing system of claim 1 wherein: each unit of work inthe first and second serial unit of work streams transmittedrespectively from the first and second source SDR resources includes aprotocol header containing fields employed by the communicationservices/fabric to target the at least one destination AI; the protocolheader includes a SDR sequence number field indicating the defined orderof its corresponding unit of work; and the first and second destinationSDR resources include an expected next sequence number value indicatingan expected defined order corresponding to the next unit of work to bereceived.
 15. The data processing system of claim 14 wherein the SDRsequence number field value being less than the expected next sequencenumber value stored in the destination SDR resources indicates that theunit of work is a duplicate unit of work.
 16. The data processing systemof claim 14 wherein the first and second destination SDR resources areeach configured to, if the SDR sequence number field value matches theexpected next sequence number value, verify other protocol header fieldsand provide a positive acknowledgement (ACK) if the current unit of workis valid from the destination device's perspective and provide a NAK ifthe current unit of work is invalid from the destination device'sperspective.
 17. The data processing system of claim 14 wherein the SDRsequence number field value being greater than the expected nextsequence number value indicates that the unit of work is received aheadof its defined order.
 18. The data processing system of claim 17 whereinthe first and second destination SDR resources are each configured toprovide a NAK in response to the indication that the unit of work isreceived ahead of its defined order contains the expected next sequencenumber value in the SDR sequence number field of the protocol header ofthe NAK to indicate to the respective source SDR resources that anintermediate unit of work corresponding to the expected next sequencenumber value is missing.
 19. The data processing system of claim 18wherein the first and second source SDR resources are each configured torespond to the NAK and retransmit all units of work having an assignedSDR sequence number value equal to or greater than the SDR sequencenumber value corresponding to the missing intermediate unit of work. 20.The data processing system of claim 17 wherein the first and seconddestination SDR resources are each configured to verify other protocolheader fields in response to the indication that the unit of work isreceived ahead of its defined order and temporarily store the unit ofwork if the other verification checks pass.
 21. The data processingsystem of claim 20 wherein the data processing system further comprises:at least one middleware AI configured to perform a resynchronizationoperation to recover a missing intermediate unit of work correspondingto the expected next sequence number value if the other verificationchecks pass.
 22. A method of processing data comprising: producing unitsof work with at least one source application instance (AI) at a sourcedevice; consuming units of work with at least one destination AI at adestination device; establishing a first reliable datagram service whichpermits at least one of one AI to one AI, one AI to many AIs, and manyAIs to one AI reliable communication and is connectionless from theperspective of the AIs, with a first source and destination resource(SDR), between the source device and the destination device;establishing a second reliable datagram service which permits at leastone of one AI to one AI, one AI to many AIs, and many AIs to one AIreliable communication and is connectionless from the perspective of theAIs, with a second SDR independent of the first SDR, between the sourcedevice and the destination device; transmitting a first unit of workstream over a communication services/fabric with the first reliabledatagram service; guaranteeing strong ordering of the first unit of workstream received at the destination device with the first reliabledatagram service; transmitting a second unit of work stream over thecommunication services/fabric with the second reliable datagram service;and guaranteeing strong ordering of the second unit of work streamreceived at the destination device with the second reliable datagramservice.
 23. The method of claim 22 further comprising: assigning afirst priority level to the first SDR for effecting throughput andresponse time of units of work transmitted by the first SDR; andassigning a second priority level to the second SDR for effectingthroughput and response time of units of work transmitted by the secondSDR.
 24. The method of claim 22 further comprising: establishing atleast a third reliable datagram service, with at least a third SDRindependent of the first and second SDRs, between the source device andthe destination device; grouping the SDRs into multiple SDR groups,wherein each of the multiple SDR groups includes at least SDR; andassigning a unique priority level to each SDR group for effectingthroughput and response time of units of work transmitted by the atleast one SDR in each SDR group.
 25. The method of claim 22 furthercomprising: storing scheduling heuristics; adjusting a first schedulingrate of the first SDR based on the stored scheduling heuristics; andadjusting a second scheduling rate of the second SDR based on the storedscheduling heuristics.